Olapeju Jolaoso: Social media is amazing for business

Olapeju Jolaoso is #MotherlandMogul goals. She is the founder of Abebi Organics which produces amazing organic and healthy handmade Shea Butter-based skin and hair care products. Her hope is to become the go-to person for organic skincare in Nigeria and the world in the nearest future.

When she isn’t running Abebi Organics, Olapeju is in class. She is currently an undergraduate at the University of Ilorin where she is studying Geography and Environmental Management.

Are your products handmade by you/your team or are you a retailer of another manufacturer?

All my products, except coconut oil, are handmade by me. Due to my ongoing education, I have a separate manufacturer for the coconut oil because there is barely any time for me to make it.

How have you been able to use social media to gather publicity for your brand?

I got the inspiration for my business offline however, social media has helped in the growth and development by bringing customers, logistic services and so on.

I use social media for free advertisement and it has really helped. People off social media have seen my ads, liked, retweeted, shared and also referred me off social media. It’s an amazing tool.

How do you ensure that your product remains hassle-free from the point of order to point of delivery? Kindly explain how the sales chain works?

Products going from point of order to point of delivery hassle free is actually very difficult. Most times the issue stems from logistics. You have to hope and pray that once you give the delivery person the orders, they don’t mess them, mix them up or deliver it to the customer late or even not at all.

Sometimes, these things happen. You just have to keep communicating with the customer to ensure they have peace of mind and that you don’t lose them. The sales chain goes from me to the delivery personnel and from the delivery personnel to the customer or whoever is available to pick up on the customer’s behalf.

What major social media channel do you make use of and how has it been beneficial to the brand?

I make use of Twitter the most. It’s been the most helpful. We also use Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook and WordPress but the major tool is Twitter.

Twitter has a way of spreading your adverts. It doesn’t stay in one place. It goes from timeline to timeline. This ensures that other people who aren’t even following you see the posts and get curious thereby giving them a chance to send you a message.

Also, twitter handlers can also direct their followers to your page and it’s amazing. It’s been super beneficial. We got the person who made our logo and the lawyer who registered us via Twitter. We hope to get investors via twitter too! That’ll be exciting. It’s a great marketing tool.

Do you think social media alone is sufficient in helping your business gain more prominence? If yes/no, kindly share your reason.

Although social media is a major tool, and mostly the best tool we have at hand right now to help our business and bring in customers, I don’t think social media alone is helping us gain more prominence.

There are other channels that’ll be beneficial to us as much as social media has. We just haven’t explored them yet. Social media is amazing because we get to network with other businesses and we get a ton of customers from it. Social media is affordable, it doesn’t take too much but it gives back a lot.

What challenges have you faced on social media?

None really, and I hope it stays that way. But then, sometimes it’s like we aren’t reaching enough people. Sometimes I feel like we aren’t doing enough on social media to bring in a lot of customers.

Abiola is a young Nigerian who has the intent to offer a dynamic approach to the world of media and journalism. She has a huge interest in showcasing the works of young Nigerian entrepreneurs. She blogs about startups and small businesses on her blog Startup Stories with MzAbiola
She is also an aspiring actress and a great voice-over artist.